Watching time tick by
by Bovrilcat
Summary: "It's called 'Watching time tick by'. It's about a psychotic man who goes into a bank and keeps everyone hostage, with a bomb strapped to him. The police have twenty four hours to get all the civilians out." Beast boy gulped, "Raven why couldn't we have gotten stuck in one of your rom-com books!" A collab with just-violet on tumblr
1. Intro

**Hey there fanfiction! This is a collab with the wonderful just-violet on Tumblr!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen titans and neither does Violet**

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It had started off like any other normal day, the titans had actually managed to persuade Raven to attend lunch with them, on condition that she could bring her latest novel of course. What the dark empath didn't know however that the titans lunch plan happened to involved a certain green changeling planning to confess his not-so-secret-feelings, Raven seeming to be the only one who didn't notice his affection.

"So Raven." said Beast Boy from beside her. She looked up, noticing his slice of veggie pizza that hadn't been touched.

"Yes?" she asked, at a part in her book in which the characters were fighting their worst fears, she didn't want to put it down now. She was sensing emotion from her friend she didn't quite understand, as if he were confused or nervous. Beast Boy looked at Cyborg, who opened his eyes really wide and smiled. Not much of a help.

"I… What's up?" Raven raised an eyebrow from beneath her hood.

"I'm eating lunch… With you." she said. Beast Boy seemed to brighten. "…And my other friends."

"Right. Well, I need to tell you something. You… For awhile now, I've been thinking, and I realized that you make me-" Raven looked behind Beast Boy, hearing someone scream. She watched as a certain villain entered the restaurant.

"Who wants to see a magic trick?"

Mumbo.

Beast boy immediately spun round, as did the other titans. Beast boy sighed inwardly, he had been so close! Stupid Mumbo!

His inner thoughts was suddenly cut off by a familiar catch phrase, causing the rest of the titans to spring from their lunch table.

Mumbo looked up, a smirk presenting itself on his face.

"For my next magic trick, I'll need a volunteer! How about you, Beast Boy?" Beast Boy rolled his eyes, waiting for Robin's signal to attack. Now it was personal, and Raven hated Mumbo, so beating him up would be even more pleasurable. He morphed into a tiger, but Mumbo's smirk only grew. "Oh, Beast Boy." he clicked his tongue and shook his head. "No pets allowed inside. That's what you are to the Titans, right?" Beast Boy grimaced, Mumbo knew how to push all the Titans' buttons.

"Titans go!" Robin yelled, sprinting forward Bo-staff in hand. Robin thumped Mumbo's side, sending him crashing in to table, while Beast boy pounced onto him, cheese sandwiches wooshing into the air.

"Get the hat BB!" Cyborg yelled, as he and Starfire got the civilians out of the way, struggling as they pulled out their phones to film the fiasco. Raven flew ahead, sending a blast of black energy towards Mumbo as he broke free of Beast boy. Mumbo deflected, sending a giant flock of Doves flying into her face. Raven became flustered, trying to rid the doves from her view.

"Bunnies, doves… What other random animals will be thrown my face?" said Raven, clearing away the birds. When she did, it revealed Mumbo grabbing her book from the table. _No_ , thought Raven, hurdling toward the con man with Beast Boy by her side. But he only grinned.

"I thank you kindly for participating." he said, the twirled his magic wand, capturing Beast Boy in fake magic. "One less Titan. I'm doing the world a favor!" The magic started pulling Beast Boy into the book, a book he wouldn't know what to do if he were in those situations.

"Beast Boy!"

"Raven!" they grabbed each other's wrists, but it wasn't strong enough, and they disappeared  
into the book altogether.

Robin stared at the scene that had just unfold in front of him. He was speechless, truly and utterly. Had he really just witnessed his friends being sucked into a book?! Reality suddenly gripped him as Cyborg and Starfire called out to him.

"Robin! Get that book, we'll take care of magic man!" Robin registered Cyborg's command, giving him a nod. Mumbo laughed chaotically, tossing the book aside.

"Well looks like I've done enough, have fun with your dilemma!" With that the blue man dispersed in a puff of swirling smoke, Starfire's starbolt cutting through the smoke and hitting a wall.

Raven opened her eyes slowly, then sat up, touching a finger to her temple. She looked around, her setting unfamiliar. From behind her, Raven heard a voice.

"Wha?- Aw, MAN!" turned around, seeing a certain green teen stumble to his feet behind her. Raven hurried over, glad to see Beast Boy, though she would never admit it. "Rae! Oh, good, I'm not alone… Where are we?!" Raven looked around, then turned back to Beast Boy.

"We're in my book." she said, recalling the earlier fight with Mumbo. Beast Boy knit his eyebrows, then opened his mouth wide.

"OOOHH… Yeah, I remember, You tried to save-Oh, this is my fault!"

"It doesn't matter. With my powers, it'll be easy to get us out, or at least make contact with the others." she said, but didn't deny it was Beast Boy's fault. It was. Raising her hands, Raven looked at the sky and closed her eyes. "Azarath, metrion, ZINTHOS!" she chanted. But she didn't feel anything. Nothing happened. Raven took off her hood and turned to Beast Boy. "Turn into something!" she said, fear growing in her mind.

"Um…"

"Do it!"

"Okay! Sheesh!" Beast Boy said. "Um…" Beast Boy started making weird movements. He jutted out his neck, made punching movements, raised his left leg, jumped up and down… "I can't! I don't have my powers!" he said. Raven's eyes grew, now she was nervous. Being in one of her books was dangerous enough, but without their powers… Raven wasn't sure what to do.


	2. Bovrilcat

**This chapter was written by me, next one shall be by Violet.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans neither does Violet**

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"Wait! SO lemme get this straight…" Beast boy started, his eyes growing wide. "We're stuck, in one of your books, without our powers!" He squeaked the last part, dread printed all over his face. Raven merely nodded, looking around the empty blackness. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Beast boy's helpless screams.

"Beast boy! Screaming is not going to get us out of this mess!" Raven said, rolling her eyes at the changeling. He took a breath, his legs quaking.  
"So-uh… What exactly is this book about? Please tell me it's a light hearted rom-com." Raven scoffed on his words, never admitting she actually had a lot of Marian Keyes books hidden away in her bookshelves.

"It's called 'Watching time tick by'. It's about a psychotic man who goes into a bank and keeps everyone hostage, with a bomb strapped to him. The police have twenty four hours to get all the civilians out." Raven replied, suddenly realizing the peril they were in. Beast boy gulped, "Why can't you read anything normal!"

Raven paled, remembering the crucial part she had just reached in the book, "The man with the bomb strapped to him also happens to be the husband of the bomb squad leader…"  
Beast boy could only shiver. "Oh my god we're gonna die in a book!" He exclaimed, falling to his knees. Raven sighed, peering around again. Suddenly the blackness around them started to fade.

Beast boy looked up, noticing the change. "Raven your clothes!"  
Raven looked down at herself, now dressed blue jeans, and a loose brown woven jumper. All topped off with a blue snood and blue flats. Beast boy stood, now in maroon khaki trousers and a short sleeved dark blue shirt. He was also wearing a pair of brown upanah shoes and a rather expensive looking watch.

Raven felt herself growing more worried, as Beast boy latched himself onto her arm. "RAVEN!" He shouted, as the black melted away into the shape of a building. "Please tell me that they get the people out of the bank!" Beast boy exclaimed, squeezing her arm tighter.

Raven shook her head, looking around the space. She wished she had read a little faster now, wishing she knew the ending of the thriller. Groups of people started to materialize, as did the growing sound of chatter. She suddenly felt the tightness on her arm no longer, Beast boy having been swept away with a two young men, wearing similar clothing. The two boys seemed to be discussing their night out, while Beast boy stood with them sheepishly not know what to say. What was most curious is that nobody in the building seemed to be idling the fact there was a green skinned, pointed eared teenager among them. Raven just put it down to weird being-sucked-into-a-book logic.

Beast-boy's eyes darted around, looking for Raven. It came apparent to him that whatever characters they were playing, didn't know each other. However he was more concerned with the fact that some guy latched onto a bomb was about to walk in, and there was nothing he or Raven could do about it.

"I've looked through all of Raven's spell books and I can't find anything!" Cyborg exclaimed, perplexed. Robin furrowed his eyebrows, while Starfire stood by with the book wrapped firmly in her arms.  
"Robin what are we gonna do! You read that blurb, there's a bomb in that book! A BOMB!" Robin ran his hands through his hair, as Cyborg fretted beside him.

"Robin, perhaps if we apprehended Mumbo and performed the interrogation on him, we could find a solution to our friend's dilemma." Star suggested, running a soothing hand over Cyborg's shoulder. "We must act quickly, I am most anxious about our friends!" Starfire urged Robin, holding the book tighter to her chest.

"Okay, we need to find Mumbo. Maybe his prison tracker is still active. Cyborg, check the mainframe, if his tracker isn't active I want you to hack it and activate it." Cyborg nodded at Robin's commands, heading off towards the mainframe computer. Robin then turned to Starfire.

"Starfire, I want you to read that book from cover to cover. We want to know how much danger Raven and Beast boy are in." Starfire immediately perched on the sofa, skimming the first few pages. Robin then went off to go and make a few calls to a couple of prisons, with his game face on.

Raven scanned the area, trying to tone out the loud noise in the bank. There was a long line, bank clerks working every opening. Of course the bank was busy when a lunatic with a bomb was going to waltz in. She tried to remember the description of the bomb man, or more precisely Kyle Whitmore. She looked for a man in his mid-thirties, black hair and piercing blue eyes. She had a clear image of him in her mind recalling that he had been wearing a black jumper in his description.

She suddenly locked eyes with Beast boy, who looked utterly helpless. Fear was smeared across his face, obviously wanting more information. Raven thought back to the beginning of the book, knowing that they were in the intro and soon there would be swarms of police outside the building. Her heart rate quickened, as she kept her eyes locked with Beast boy. He suddenly called out to her.

"Hey-uh-Martha! I've been waiting for you for ages!" He signalled for her to come over, he knew he had to keep her close with some maniac holding a gun and a bomb coming in anytime soon. She came towards them, both his character manifested friends giving him questioning looks. Beast boy, being the self proclaimed lie master of the Titans, has no problem ad-libbing a story to the boys.

"Sorry I forgot to tell you guys, Martha is coming with us tonight. She's only in town this week so I thought it'd be fun." The two boys seemed to shrug it off, giving their greetings to Raven, going back to their conversations about what Pizza they were going to get. Beast boy then turned to Raven.

"Does anything bad happen to the background characters in this book?!" He whispered harshly, eyes darting around the room. Raven's stomach sank as the memory of a certain chapter surfaced.  
"There's one part where somebody gets shot…" She tried to remain monotone, but dread leaked into the sentence. Beast boy's eyes widened, "What!" He said a little too loudly, causing the two boys to turn.

"You okay Josh?" The blonde tall one asked. Beast boy just nodded, not trusting his own voice. The blonde boy went to open his mouth again, until the was an abrupt ear splitting bang.

"EVERYBODY GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!"


	3. Just-Violet

**This one was written by Violet, if you're on tumblr go and follower her. Her user name is just-violet!**

 **Disclaimer: We do not own teen titans**

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Robin ran his hands through his hair, trying hard to think of how he could get his teammates out of the book. Five long hours had already passed. As leader, it came to him in the end. All the bad and rescuing fell to him. Mumbo really had disappeared, with not so much as a rabbit to point the three remaining Titans in the right direction. Robin didn't even realize Starfire had sat next to him until she began to speak.

"Cyborg is seeing if he can upload our friends to his computer somehow. But he, and I, fear it will not be successful." she looked at him. "How are you doing Robin?" he shook his head.

"I don't know Star. I usually have at least an idea of what to do. With Slade, there's always a clue, something from the last place we saw him, or a riddle in his words… But I have nothing here. I-I can't help but feel it's my fault." Starfire put her hand on Robin's.

"It is not your fault our friends are trapped. It is only Mumbo's. He put them there, not you."

"Yes, but I should at least know-"

"And ever since the incident with Malchior, friend Raven has refused for even you to look at her books. She-" Robin's eyes widened as the gears in his head began to work.

"Wait- Malchior!" he exclaimed. Starfire looked confused, so he explained. "He knows books, right? I mean, he IS a book, sort of. He could know how to get them out! You did it Starfire!" without thinking, Robin leaned forward and kissed Starfire on the cheek. They both blushed when he pulled back.

"Um… You and Cyborg know Raven's room better then I do. You guys should find Malchior's book prison, I'll look in Raven's spells to see if there's a ritual where we can summon him without magic." Starfire smiled a bit, and walked out with a red tint to her cheeks. _We can save them_ , thought Robin. I know we can.

Raven felt Beast Boy's hand slide over her back and pull her down.

"What's going on?!" he asked her.

"I- He's taking hostages."

"Duh! What happens next?!" Raven thought. First, two characters, Josh and Martha head into a bank. They talk for awhile in line, flirting a bit… Raven's eyes widened when she realized why the characters had flirted. One of them would die in the end- A major character death, something Raven admired in books, the entire reason Raven had picked up this cursed book in the first place. But because the book was narrated from both points of views, Raven didn't have any idea which one would die. (Not knowing-Another thing Raven admired in books. When she wasn't in them.)

"I- He starts to monologue, splits us into corners-our characters end up in the same one- We have a couple chapters, but I don't know how long it'll be in real… Life." Raven didn't know what to call this.

"Quiet!" yelled the villain, looking at Raven.

She ignored him.

"Beast Boy! What if dying in here transports us back home? Think about it. Mumbo can't do spells like this on his own! Unless he had help, this can't be real. It's beyond his powers. Maybe-" Raben felt a sharp blow to the back of her head. She groaned and put her hand to it, feeling blood. The world began to go fuzzy as she began fading away.

"Raven!"

"I said, be quiet." she heard two voices as she disappeared altogether.


	4. Bovrilcat 2

**We will now be updating on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Violet on Wednesday and me on Saturdays. This chapter was written by me :))**

 **Disclaimer: I get tired of these... We do not own Teen Titans, yada yada**

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"The instruction tell us we must place the book of Malchior central in the circle of vanilla scented candles," Starfire instructed, reading from the old tome Cyborg and she had retrieved from Raven's room. Robin gently placed the white bound book in the middle of the circle. He stood back, wondering if it was going to work. They had spent quite sometime moving all the furniture back against the walls of the common room, with now a very large circle of white candles burning contently while various jars of spices stood by. According to Raven's tome, because they were summoning Malchior in mortal ways (without magic) the summoning would only last for a certain amount of time.

"So Star, can you run us through what happens in Raven's book again." Starfire nodded, floating back down to the ground.

"I have not yet finished, but it is a most interesting novel. The narration is told from many sides, including five hostages. The narration is also in form of the Bomb squad leader and many of the police that surround the bank in question. It has been revealed that the man with the gun, is in fact the spouse of the bomb squad leader. Also, a number of the hostages have managed to hide within the bank, but the man with the gun is looking for them. At the part and am currently reading, the bomb has yet another fifteen hours before it detonates…"

Cyborg bit his lip, "Okay, let's just summon ol' dragon boy and get them out before one em' get hurt." Starfire nodded, looking down at the old tome. The boys took a step back, as Starfire took a breath. She had drawn the short straw for summoning a cursed being. Robin furrowed his eyebrows, he certainly wasn't up for bringing back Malchior but it was the only way.

"Nos letalis voco thee ut terrenus regnum , permissum vos adveho in bindings , permissum vestri vox exsisto contentus per meus vox. Exorior vomica unus!" She threw a handful of spices into the circle, signalling for the boys to join hand with her. As instructed before, the three began to chant.

"Exorior vomica unus, exorior vomica unus, exorior vomica unus, exorior vomica unus!"

There was a sudden bright white light, causing all of the teens to scrunch their eye shut. Pages flew around the room, swirling into a figure. Robin squinted his eyes as the light died away, only a tall slender body left in the center of the candles. He turned, revealing piercing white eyes. Robin pressed his lips together, wondering how Raven could have fallen in love with something so, dark.

"Titans, how nice to finally meet you. Where's Raven, she needs to give me a welcome back kiss," his icy British accent sent chills down Robin's spine. Cyborg suddenly flew at him, grasping his neck.

"Don't you ever talk about my baby Raven like that! I will crush you paper boy, you broke her heart! I will kill you!" Starfire flew forward, pulling Cyborg back.  
"Friend you must be calm!" She told him, as he scowled at Malchior. Robin sniffed, "Starfire I'll handle this, you and Cyborg go and rest somewhere."

"So, what assistance can I offer?"

"Raven get up!" Raven's eyes cracked open upon hearing a harsh whisper. Beast boy hastily dragged her to her feet, while surreptitiously checking her head wound. The blood had dried, leaving her with blood matted hair. He leaned her against back against the wall the wall as everyone else had been instructed to do by the Gunman, as he came to search everyone for weapons.

Raven felt light headed, she held her breath counting to ten. "He revealed the bomb while you were out, the cops are here too with the bomb squad." He said, keeping his voice low. Raven nodded, looking at all the petrified faces. The Gunman was on the other side of the room, she had to talk quickly.

"Beast boy, we're two of the characters that narrates in the book. There are three more hostages called Riley, Mark and Penny who narrate. The other narrators are various cops and the bomb squad leader. Either: you, me, Riley, Mark or Penny are going to get shot."

She watched his face pale, moving his hand so it rested on hers. "But I made that story up about you being Martha…" He whispered, keeping an eye on the Gunman.  
Raven nodded, "How easily did the 'lie' come to you?" His eyes darted down, realising what happened.  
"I already knew you were called Martha and that you were only in town for a couple of days…" The stories had been implanted in their brains through the story. "And I already knew you were called Josh and that you were my friend and I was visiting for a couple of days." Raven replied, noticing the Gunman getting closer.

"Beast boy quick, what else do you know about Josh?" Beast boy shook his head, closing his eyes.

"He's got a girlfriend called Layla, he's going to move out of his parents house soon, he works at the local garage, he's going to room with his cousin when he moves out…" He cut off when he noticed the Gunman approaching.

He squeezed Raven's hand tighter, if he hadn't been fearing for his life he probably would have been blushing. He tried to focus on Raven, going through all of the things he liked about her, her hair, her intellect, her smile. Her smile was the greatest thing on the damn planet to him, even better was her laugh. He let a small smile grace his face, feeling himself calm down, releasing some of the pressure he had on Raven's hand.

The Gunman looked them up and down, searching them before moving onto the next group of people. Beast boy just hoped the other Titans were trying to figure something out.


End file.
